Game Arts, a Japanese developer of console-style games, became famous in Japan with the development of Thexder in 1983. When Ken William's went on a business trip to Japan with the intention to sell Sierra software, he ended up returning to the USA while having bought Japanese games. Sierra On-Line then bought the rights for distribution of Thexder in the USA, and it turned out in a business relationship with Game Arts which lasted 5 years.
Game Arts' claim to fame in the Western hemisphere is a number of console conversions for PC published by Sierra On-Line. These conversions remain today some of the best games of its kind, although the music and sounds are noticeably inferior to their console originals. The company is still going strong, although they are concentrating more on console systems than PC. Their older games were now distributed by Sierra and Working Designs in the US, while the more recent ones are published by UBI Soft.
